Information Commissioner's Office

West Midlands Ambulance Service

5 October 2017, Health (Other)

The complainant has requested information about 999 calls where technician or emergency care assistant-only teams were the first or only responders, for particular years.  West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) released some information and withheld some under section 22 of the FOIA (information intended for future publication) and section 22A (research). The Commissioner’s decision is that, with regard to requests 3 and 4, WMAS does not hold the information on particular categories of ambulance call outs for the months June to December 2016.  She finds WMAS breached section 1(1)(a) of the FOIA in this regard as it had confirmed it held information that it did not hold. The Commissioner has also decided that, at the time of the request, the information within the scope of request 1 that WMAS holds did not engage either section 22(1) or section 22A.  WMAS was instructed to release this information to the complainant during the course of the Commissioner’s investigation.  If it has not already done so, WMAS must take the following step to ensure compliance with the legislation: Release to the complainant the information it holds that falls within the scope of request 1, for the months June to December 2016.

FOI 1: Not upheld FOI 22: Upheld